Attentional bias for rejection and sad words in Chinese left-behind children with depression

This study aimed to examine attentional bias (AB) for sad and social rejection words in Chinese left-behind children (LBC) with depression.

We investigated both stimulus specificity and components of AB in different groups using a cross-sectional design. Data were drawn from a school assessment of depression and anxiety, from which we selected LBC with depression (n = 40), LBC without depression (n = 33), a control group with depression (n = 31), and a control group without depression (n = 37). AB was measured with a dot-probe task covering two stimulus types (sad and rejection).

The analysis of AB scores revealed a significant three-way interaction (LBC × depression × word type), F(1, 137) = 4.00, p = 0.047, η2 = 0.028, with depressed non-LBC exhibiting a significant depression × word type interaction, F(1, 66) = 4.67, p = 0.034, η2 = 0.066, while the depression × word type interaction was not significant in LBC, F(1, 71) = 0.18, p = 0.675, η2 = 0.002. Depressed children living with their parents showed AB towards sad words but not rejection words, while depressed LBC showed greater AB towards both rejection and sad words.

The findings provide evidence that an AB towards sad information is critically involved in the depressed LBC. Compared with non-LBC depressed individuals, an AB for rejection may be involved as a risk factor in the LBC. It sheds light on the effective intervention programmes for LBC's depression and have important practical significance for reducing depression and improving the mental health of LBC.